Out of the Great Abyss -- Ethiopia. World War One. HOI2:Darkest Hour AAR

Started by JasonPratt, March 06, 2014, 05:34:13 PM

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JasonPratt

#30
Since I'm going to be out of town tomorrow afternoon for the birthday party of Niecemus Prime (she and Microniece have no idea what I'm saying when I call them that, but like the sound of it), I'm planning to post two entries tonight.

I think in gameplay I'm up to Part 17...? Not at the house where I can check my notes. But I expect sometime next week I'll have caught up enough I won't be able to post an entry a day, because I'll be dividing time between playing, testing theories on how the game works (I have a whole other parallel Ethiopian campaign going on now for some of that, starting at this fork in the path(s) ;) ), and composing Entries.

I promise I have SEVERAL MORE EQUALLY RETARDED AND/OR IGNORANT lapses on the way to report about, including next entry. I can say that things will be somewhat more exciting now at least.  :o
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Part 13 -- Contra Mundum

March 1, 1915. Yimer sounded strangely satisfied: "So. We've declared war on about a third of the world, and told the other two thirds never mind we don't need their help. Now what?"

"First things first," said Habte.

"We rescue our northern people," said the Emperor.

"Absolutely not." Everyone stared at the bishop; this, disconcertingly, seemed to be a new habit! "First we protect our lands from France. Then, after we send those orders, we go get our people, north and south."

"Absolutely," Habte agreed. "The only troops we've seen for months are the infantry in Djibouti. Who showed up when? -- when Italy's sole militia disappeared, probably to secure their northernmost port, if they haven't left the region entirely. France now has a reason to invade us. Honestly, by themselves, that division of regular infantry could have killed our nation only a few months ago. France would be insane not to try to claim more land from there, and even pump spare troops as soon as possible into the breach."

"Do you agree north and south?" asked Mikael. The other two men seemed stunned to have forgotten our only actual threat nearby.

"Oh, yes, certainly," said Habte. "We have to knock out Italy's means of reinforcing quickly, as well as rescue our people. I don't know what we're going to do if Britain throws together a few small garrison squads and raids our western provinces -- they could take the capital itself! But we've crossed the bridge and burned it thoroughly now. Let us go on and hope that if we fail..." Habte couldn't finish.

"I will observe, if anyone cares to hear," the Archbishop mildly continued: "for much of our lives, including the past several months, the only reason that we have survived as a nation at all, is because the colonial nations, even Italy, didn't care to upset other nations by throwing themselves at us. We've fractured that charity now, thin as it might have seemed to us.

"Be that as it may. Now we must strike hard to live, and not look back, and pray both for forgiveness, and for a miraculous victory."

"You don't sound as if you expect a miracle, Father." Iyasu was trying to get back leadership of the meeting again, after being minded of France's threat.

"I don't. Not for this. But I'll be grateful if we get one. Meanwhile, what can we send out soon to the other points of the compass around?"

"Soon!?" snorted Habte. "Nothing at all! I was hoping to use the few remaining ten-percent-strength groups to help secure our lines of advance into the coasts, and then to disband them for training up our armored cars..." He rubbed his hand across his bushy hair. "Would it be quicker to march them now, or tell them to move in a group and meet all together at a place for retraining as... what would we train them as? You might as well forget the armored cars for a while -- I'll have factories ready to start construction before the end of the month, or maybe early April, but I haven't got a single clue how long they'll take to build."

"First things first," the Emperor said. "Just as you've wisely said, my friends. Let's put up a couple of roadblocks to any French opportunism, and then go get our people. We might have to march back home to rescue another set of occupied territories by then, but I don't know what to do about that yet. So I won't worry about it while we think on various options."

Shortly after, one of our pitiful radios managed to make an intermittent contact with Major General Gebre Hiwot, of the Imperial Guard, stationed in Tendaho along with two ad hoc corps of three militia divisions each.

"What?" he crackled as Habte attempted to explain the need to keep some troops in place and redeploy others a little south. "The French division? When did they come back!? We haven't seen them there since late October!"

That was embarrassing and convenient.

"Send a division and seize Djibouti," ordered Iyasu. "We'll split off another militia from the south to pick up Hargeisa, too. The Imperial guard should stick with the plan to head north and be prepared to help support some other attacks on either side. We'll also send a couple of weak militias to put some bumps along your northwestern flank."



[Note: I had totally not even noticed that the French division was gone. It had been gone so long I HAD NEVER NOTICED IT WAS GONE! In my mind, that blue blob simply stood for "French division in territory of France". So that really was me making plans to protect against an incursion south by the French, and then realizing the French weren't there anymore apparently, and going back to check my screenshot maps to see whenever the hell I'd seen them last! (Readers can scroll back upthread to see for themselves -- the French haven't been in Djibouti for, like, ever.)

...I'm going to lose this game, aren't I...?]


After receiving acknowledgment of the alteration to the plan that had been in place for months, Iyasu added to Habte who was standing nearby: "In for a penny, in for a pound, as the British say. Might as well show our people we mean business, and secure our eastern flank entirely all at once, since we can't help the west right now. Also we'll need all the factories and mines that we can get, if they have any -- we just terminated all our trade agreements by war!"

"Maybe Yimer can set up convoy routes with any of the other two-third nations in the world who might still trade with us," grumbled Habte. "That would be handy, too."

"And part of our plan in any case," the Emperor agreed. "Yimer and I had talked of that already."

"Except," Yimer reminded him, once they were back at the Emperor's office, "I also told you we have no evidence any of those areas has been even slightly developed by the colonials -- aside from ports and forts! God forbid they have anyone in them ready to defend against us..."

"So taking those lands will be useless, at the present time, other than for popular morale," said Mikael.

"And to deny our enemies an easy way to strike us back," the Emperor reminded him -- miffed a little, it seemed to me, at having forgotten what his own intelligence network had told him. To be fair, those were duties currently split between men with rather different ideas of their jobs in mind... "Even technical wizards will find it hard to seize those lands by any invasion from the sea!"

"The British have some soldiers trained to do that, I recall. But yes, yes," quickly added Habte, "I agree. And also, sending those nearly depleted militias up as recon-by-force, will help us plan to capture Khartoum: and they do have a factory!"

"Probably they will have reinforced by then," the Emperor sighed. "Even now our troops will need the summer to take the Horn without resistance! -- longer if they find some! Or if some arrive. At least we'll have plenty of options for building up infrastructure to then start building factories from. Holy Spirit, guide our hand and protect us... we could be spreading suicidally thin, without any way to really strengthen our hold until the winter..." He sighed and then he sharply inhaled. "But we loaded the guns and pulled the triggers already. Our only hope is to grab as much as we can, while we can, and then to hold it as long as possible while we build up our lands from inside out. We may have to retreat, or be overrun, in several places before we're strong enough to take them back for good. But we'll never be strong enough in time to do much at all, if all we do is stand around or push half-heartedly. Grab it all, drop if we must, drink what we can, try it again.

"The monkey fails to escape the trap of his greed by not letting go." The scholars looked confused, except for Mikael who nodded. "A proverb from our jungle regions. Monkey-hunters catch their prey by setting out jars with treats and open tops. Monkeys smell and see the treats, grab themselves a handful -- and then are still there hours later, when the hunters return. Because they won't let go," he said. "Their fists are too large because of their pride."

"Or because of their desperation," the archbishop said.

"I'll try to give our grasping monkeys some monsters to shoot the hunters with," said Habte; shaking his head as he left the room.

[Note: I learned that parable long ago when I was only 6 or 7 by reading a book for children from African missionaries. I don't know whether monkey hunters really used to do that.]

[Title note: "contra mundum" is Latin for "Against the world", though I can't vouch for the grammatic accuracy. ;) ]
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

bob48

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

JasonPratt

Argh, I got distracted last night -- success is getting more desperate -- and forgot to add another part in case I couldn't do it this afternoon or tonight...

I'm certainly learning the game as I go, this way, rather than stumbling around as one of the super-combatants like Russia! But HOI vets will be totally mocking my ignorance soon. Again. Repeatedly.  ::)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Part 14 -- But Who Bewares The Ides

On March 8, Yimer negotiated a rather pitiful trade agreement with Germany -- half the agreed on materials weren't getting to us for the supplies that we were sending out. However, it was better than nothing.

On March 9, all the Entente hit Germany with a trade and tech embargo, largely backed by the navy of the United Kingdom. Thus our agreement ended again, not by Germany's fault. Annoying, but the German people would surely be suffering more right now from every kind of sadness of war (aside from general occupation).

On March 16, 1915, just before dawn, seven of our militia divisions, under the command of our greatest general, stumbled into a hidden British infantry division as they crossed into the mountains of Asmara. Our war's first battle began.

"A British division of infantry??? What in the actual hell!?" That was the joke told darkly in the streets that morning, attributed as a saying of the Emperor. Likely someone had heard him shouting something like that around six o'clock when he got the news: his window had been open to appreciate the newly coming dawn.

"I do feel reasonably confident we'll win," said minister Habte. "We outnumber them enormously, enough to offset the balance of odds against us otherwise."



"We have to expect to win by superior numbers for a while," he continued. "If we can."

"But a BRITISH division??!"

"The area is widely regarded as more of a key strategic position than Massawa for some reason, sir. That is doubtless why they decided to park -- "

"A BRITISH DIVISION THERE IN ITALIAN TERRITORY! ...why is all the rum gone?" muttered Iyasu, checking his stock of supplies.

"Diplomatic reasons, sir. Ask Yimer."

"Diplomatic reasons," said Yimer an hour later. All four ministers now were present; Yimer had been awakened from a disreputable building elsewhere in town, but no one held this against him. He wasn't married. "You donated all our rum, back last summer, as a gift to -- "

"Focus, man. The British division our men are fighting and killing and dying against." Iyasu was drinking an orange juice and seltzer mix, along with just a touch of pure grain alcohol.

"Also diplomatic, sir, I'm sure. Who has ports they want to secure? Britain, France, and Rome. Who has the nearest troops not already at the ports? Certainly Great Britain. Fastest way to get there? Technically by ship. What if they don't have enough ships nearby, to pack the division and all its gear? March it in on foot. Italy is their military ally now, and so de facto grants them rights to travel through their territory. General.... whoever-he-is," Yimer wiped his eyes; Iyasu offered a drink, and stood to mix him a 'morning toast'. "Thank you, sir. He hasn't reported fighting against entrenchments, so the British have just arrived. We probably caught them marching."

"Not by surprise, unfortunately," said Habte. "Still I agree. We caught them on the hop. General Nessibu, by the way. Likely enough this means the British coast will not be garrisoned when we arrive, yet. Not for another month or so," he answered the Emperor's unspoken question. "Only ruts and paths connecting mountain valleys to one another right on down to the sea. It'll be nightmarish just to travel, but they have to secure the area, too, as they go."

"Who will reach where first?"

"Most of our divisions won't secure their target areas until early to late mid-April," Habte replied. "The Gubba Sefari marching into El Qadarif, our westernmost advance, will likely be next to arrive, end of March. They can march faster along tribal paths, due to having only ten-percent strength! In effect they'll act as a base for sending out scouts to tell us what chances we have at taking Khartoum."

"Certainly next on our list, later this summer, once we free the coastline. Not IF we do!" the Emperor sharply admonished his cabinet members. "I won't be unrealistic, but we have to intend to succeed and send morale to the troops."

"Propaganda, sir?" That was Mikael.

Iyasu flatly glared. "Maybe, yes. But not right now. That takes money we need to be spending elsewhere. Everyone caught up now? Very well. I will keep the radio watch and send my aide to bring you if there's serious trouble. Back to what you were doing. Not you, Yimer, get some real rest."

"I was truly resting, sir. I have a regular... friend. Cheaper than a wife, but she provides me company."

"Careful what you say to your not-wife. Very well. Habte... ?"

"My wife is dead. Work is my wife. My life, I mean. I could use the sleep, but I won't have time. We need the money and also the weapons, soon. Very soon. Far too soon..."
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Part 15 -- The April Fools

Throughout late March, as the battle for Asawa raged (if "raged" could be an apt word for it -- we were killing almost as many horses as men, and not quite many of those), Emperor Iyasu V made several personal deals to try to offset our material deficits. Each and every one was then abruptly cancelled within hours. In one case Belgium signed with the Central Powers the very next day after cancelling a particularly nice trading deal that would have resupplied almost all our metal deficit. Greece continued to stay neutral in the European war, but mobilized itself in case of encroachment by Bulgaria.

Finally, on at 3 pm on March 29, 1915 -- the same day a tentative deal with Bolivia was struck to supply quite a bit of our rare material deficit for only ten percent of our supply surplus -- General Nissbu and his army of Ethiopian militia routed the British division with its more experienced general in the Battle of Asmara. Our casualties, 1510 men. Theirs, 1920 men, 886 horses, and 6 artillery pieces.

Early the next morning, our meager scout militia division secured El Qadarif, a land of pleasant plains across a river from Khartoum. Preliminary scouts sent out while the militia was working on El Qadarif, said the city didn't seem to have any defenders, British or otherwise.

"Take it," Iyasu ordered. "I know they need rest, but their organization isn't so bad; and they'll organize much better than out in the city." Couriers rushed and radios tweaked to try to send the orders: onward to Khartoum!

"That," said Habte, studying the battle report, "was a lot of horses for an infantry division. I wonder if it was reinforced by a cavalry brigade. Also, we didn't destroy it. We really barely dented it. Granted we were winning, but if it withdrew so quickly then that confirms it never was meant to hold the ground."

"Could've been worse," Yimer tightly said. "We could have been facing two or three divisions of cavalry supported by a headquarters ramming up our rear. So to speak." He passed a scouting report.

Four or five curses fell at once. I'm not sure who said what or didn't. Things were a little panicky right that moment.



"They landed quickly." Habte was shuddering.

"Or rode north from Mombasa maybe."

"Maybe both," Yimer answered. "The cavalry is moving north, but could have come from Port Garissa. Scouting reports -- mostly from traders -- seem to describe a headquarters unit marching southwest. Both of them British. An HQ unit wouldn't have come from Italian territory into British."

"And," Habte agreed, "not only wouldn't have gotten ahead of an actual fighting unit, but couldn't have outpaced cavalry. It's going to get behind the horses as they advance and support them."

"So," said the bishop. "Arba Minch. That will be the first we lose. On the way to Addis Abeba."

"Defeatism isn't an option, Father."

"Realism, sir. We won't be defeated unless they take our factories here." At least the Archbishop didn't say "when".

"Recommendations for stopping them, Habte."

"The closest units able to support the capital, sir, are totally depleted militia units. One of which, in Goba, was preparing to take Baidoa. I'd say pull back that one, and the one which was going to take Kassala. It hadn't crossed the river yet the last time that I heard from them. Both can travel light and fast."

"Because they both are weak," the Emperor said.

"I know. They couldn't win, but they might delay until we manage to bring the Imperial Guard. That.... could be May, sir. Maybe the end of May."

Maybe the end of us all.

Bolivia canceled their trade agreement with us on March 30. In only three months, maybe a little more, our factories would fail.

Reports of another British cav division arrived on April 1.



[Note: ohhhh good, they have lots more cav where that came from...  :P :P :P :P]
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

bob48

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

JasonPratt

Part 16 -- Bloody April

April 1, 1915. Another cavalry group appeared in Juba.

Habte tapped his fingers on his notes and studied the map. "I strongly advise you pull off some divisions from our corps, and march them back to us. We don't know how badly we'll need them there," he said after raising a hand to forestall a remark he expected Iyasu to make -- but then flustered a bit when the Emperor simply nodded.

"I know, I understand. I only wanted to see if you had reached the same conclusion," said our leader. "We know how badly we'll need them here."

"I didn't expect them to move against us so quickly," Yimer said.

"Horses can quickly ride. And," Iyasu continued, "for all we know these might be understrength scouting forces, able to move more quickly: Britain must be funneling reinforcements into its European combat troops. We might be at an advantage here."

"Really?!" asked the bishop.

"No. But it doesn't hurt to pretend. Aside from pretense, for practical purposes we should assume we aren't, but that we can win anyway. Now. How do we fight up to three divisions of cavalry each?"

"Only one way with what we have. Pin them down," said Habte. "Let them attack. Put up a blocking element where they want to go. Hit them from the sides and from the rear, if we can manage it. Don't let them get mobile again. Cut their supply if possible. Don't ever let them cut our supply."

"We can assume pretty safely they want to come here and say hello," the Emperor grimly grinned. "However, they seem to want to do it in strength, not in a push from every side. Or not yet. The newest cavalry troops are heading down toward where their h-q is going. That doesn't make sense, except to then come north along one path of advance, supporting the initial invading cavalry."



[Note: guesstimated paths of advance]

"If only we had some terrible monsters to run the horses down," muttered Mikael.

"If only I had been given several years of preparation before we told the world to get out of Africa!" Habte retorted. "And, before someone asks, you'd better get ready to understand that at this time the best we'll be able to do is produce a brigade of armored cars. In about a hundred days."

"What will that do?" "Not much," the scientist answered the Emperor's caustic question. "A brigade of mobile machine gun pits will fight about as well as maybe a half-strength militia division. Which will be amazing when you realize I'm talking about perhaps ten cars or twenty doing the work of five thousand mostly untrained men carrying forty-year-old equipment. But still, they cannot operate without support yet. And militia, by the way, don't have enough internal organization to support them."

"And we can probably reinforce several divisions to more than half full strength by then anyway," the Emperor added. "And likely will be fighting over those same production factories by then. Thank you, I understand. We cannot destroy the world yet with a score of armored mobile machine-guns."

"We're lucky to have the machine guns, sir. But we'd be better off deploying them here in the capital buildings. Just in case."

"Can we do that yet?" the bishop asked.

"No. I meant, we're lucky to have the means of making them. If we survive this raid. They might prove handy later."

"That's the spirit, Habte!" The Emperor clapped his hands together, stopping the spat developing between two of his scholars. "We have to look ahead and believe we can win! If we can't, we'll find out soon enough. Now -- "

"I believe they're weak," mused Mikael. In answer to questioning glances he continued. "The second division anyway. If they were strong, their leaders would go ahead and send them in to open up a second front as soon as possible, maybe reach us first. Instead they aren't even going inside our nation, by one territory, and then proceeding down the line securing a broader run of supplies behind their thrust until they connect with the main advance."

"... that's very perceptive, Father! Hm," pondered Iyasu. "So, we'll have more chances to spread our militia divisions out in depth and then press in all around them."

"We had better pray the troops we see to the south are only headquarters then," said Yimer. "I'll try to get more information soon. And try to get some kind of agreement to stick with various robbers," he growled, and then departed.



[Note: current defensive organization plans; doesn't show our offensive operations]

Days passed; corps and divisions marched and trotted; militia reinforced. The Emperor stopped attempting to set up trade agreements himself -- they always seemed to utterly fail -- and reluctantly let his foreign minister do the tiresome work of fishing for any kind of deal that we could muster.

On April 7, our Army of Wag -- two very outdated militia divisions -- liberated Djibouti from the French, kicking our first European colonial power out of eastern Africa. No one had opposed their march. The French hadn't bothered to even slightly develop the land, except of course the port -- which wasn't large, but only the minimum size for handling naval units. It did however mean that now we might be able to set up a convoy. If we had the time and wherewithal to build or buy and recommission a ship. But of course, now we could receive a convoy, too. Yimer started investigating various options.

The very same day, General Nessibu's Begemder Liberation Army, five divisions strong of only twenty-year-out-of-date infantry militia, finished freeing Asmala. The British were clearly retreating back into Kassala, but hadn't gotten there yet. Since from there they might be able to threaten our nation from a different angle --and cut off any support to Khartoum, assuming that that aggressive scouting suicidal operation worked -- Iyasu decided to split the Army (for want of a better word) into two corps and shorten our defensive line by taking Kassala and Port Sudan to the north, leaving Italy's port at Massawa open for now until the troops that were busy securing Asab could take it, too.

On April 9, Iyasu held another feast for the poor in Addis Abeba, proclaiming to them and to the press, "Ethiopia now is being freed!"

I noticed that he didn't invite the press to his office this time.

On April 10, the Ottoman Empire freed Kuwait from the British, too. That was what they said.

And on April 10, 1915, Habte Giyorgis Dinegde gave us hope -- if we could live long enough to drink its bounty.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

The nice thing about having a 'small' war going on, is that I can talk in more detail about the operational strategies and guesses.  ;)

Three entries scheduled later tonight (really one entry split in two by an extended explanatory digression about what I'm going to do in the game.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Quote from: bob48 on March 15, 2014, 03:10:48 PM
Looks like the midden is about to hit the windmill.


Current pooplevel 3.

Who would have thought that declaring war on EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT OF COLONIAL AFRICA TEAMED TOGETHER might be a bad idea?  ;D

On one hand, if I do manage to win (even with a little haxoring of the save game file), I will have seriously earned it.

On the other hand, I think henceforth I'll track changes with those little early 20th century electric fans...  8)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Part 17 -- Downtown Abbey

"You may be wondering why I have called you all here." Habte sounded rather more important than usual today; he certainly sounded dramatic. "It isn't about the armored car, but yes, it's ready for production at our factories -- for all the good that will do us -- and to be sold to other countries, Yimer. Which will help us more.

"But that is not what I wish to announce.

"I have invented the future."

"Wait, hold on, back up," Yimer said. "Just to reiterate, twenty or thirty armored cars, produced in two or three months, won't destroy the world?"

Habte sighed. "Of course they won't. What will be developed from them will. Or might. Twenty years from now perhaps. But make no mistake: the enemies we war against have already put this technology to work on aircraft like the one I imported for study. The Fokker Scourge last year. Bloody April is what they're calling this month, up in Europe. Flying machine gun nests, traveling forty or even fifty thousand meters every hour over practically every terrain. Some of them are large enough to carry a belly of bombs. Five hundred pounds of high explosive each." He paused to let that sink in; Yimer nodded, biting his lip and faintly added "...it's true."

"How could we ever defend against that?!"

"By having a war in Europe to distract them, Emperor. Otherwise, only by building such aircraft of our own, to intercept and hunt them down, dueling in the sky. Land-based artillery throwing up shells in the sky might randomly bring one down, out of thousands of detonations. Powerful machine gun posts might do it, if they fly low enough. Still, they exist, and if they exist the armored tractors on the ground cannot be far behind."

"And those are the monsters we've dared to fight." Mikael stared a thousand miles away beyond the walls of our little office. One such winged craft. One such tractor. Our stone and wooden walls would simply bury us.

"We don't know when they are coming. But they will come, sooner or later. Still," said Habte, "we must struggle on and fight and not give up. Even the slightest chance is better than nothing."

"It sounds," the Emperor gently said, "as if our enemies are the ones to have invented the future, Habte."

"They have a long head start, yes. We must try to fight and hold on for years, while we struggle to catch up."

"But..." the Emperor sighed. "We cannot ever catch up. I see that now. Lord, save us, what have I done? My friends, I have murdered our nation..."

"We might not catch up, sir, whatever we do. But I doubt they have what I now have."

"Those... cards with holes?" the Emperor hopelessly sighed again, shaking his head.

"No, I don't have those yet. Though soon I will."

"Soon? You said you would have to start again from nothing!"

"That, sir, is true. But I didn't mean it the way you're worried about." Habte rubbed his exhausted face. "I didn't want to tell you what I was doing, because I didn't think you'd appreciate it, and I couldn't be sure it would work. Better for you to think that I had ignorantly burned my notes and progress, as though I was crazy. Crazy, am I? We'll see whether I'm crazy or not..." he lowly growled, apparently to himself. Now Iyasu looked worried. Had the stress of our predicament cracked the wits of our greatest genius? "I have researched a THEORY OF RESEARCH! ... ..... see, I was right," he said, looking at Iyasu's expression. Yimer was hiding his face in his hand. Mikael, oddly, nodded and slightly smiled. Did he know about this already...? "Here are copies for each of you, in this box. The aide will give them to you." That was me. They were impressively heavy binders, but in the box were only two. Before I could ask, Father Mikael explained to me, "I have one already, my son."

"Can we sell them for more than usual?" Iyasu asked, dubiously thumbing through the pages.

"Under no circumstances, ever, would I allow you to do that, sir!" Habte looked horrified. "Burn my notes if you want, but please, please don't sell them. Or only to nations which make you their king!"

Now Yimer and Iyasu looked confused. Mikael was nodding in agreement, though: "Our research right now is disorganized, and I don't mean in ways a machine could fix. The research teams themselves must learn to apply their research across their disciplines, and to get better at researching.

"Science, up until recently, has historically been... how can I put it..."

"A competitive hobby," Habte snorted in derision. "The greater nations are no doubt organizing their research now into truly national programs. But they don't have my protocols and regimens."

"How do you know?" Iyasu asked.

"Experimentally, sir. If they did, they would be very much farther along by now. And we know the principles, sir, for why they do not."

"Because they don't have militant scientist monks, to put it bluntly," said the Archbishop. "Partly because the world has been slowly but steadily schisming natural study from religion, and thus from religious discipline, over the past three hundred years or so. For which the various churches also share the blame. Eventually, by intentional and accidental trial and selection, the nations will evolve, let us say, organizations of this sort without the religious connections. We have the opportunity to get there first. In theory. And in practice, if we have time to put it to work before we're destroyed."

"So -- this is a... plan... you two have been working on together."

"For a while, yes," said Habte. "Sir, I make no pretense. We have a long way to go, and there are limits to how fast we can make it work. If I had ten years, I am confident that we could put up our best research team against any other team in the world -- and finish the same assigned project ten times faster."

"... ........ what?"

"10 percent of the time that they would take. Maybe a little better, even; like I said, there are limits, and we would have to train the teams religiously -- not in religion, you understand, but very much like our monks do. Or like the finest military combatants in the world. No: much better than that! Our training will help the training of our soldiers, though."

Iyasu slowly stood. His face grew pale, and he tried to sit down again but missed his chair.

"You understand what this means, yes?" The Genius of Abyssinia rubbed his hands together. "If we can survive, in twenty years, or even fifteen, or maybe even ten, we will be the technologically dominant nation on the planet. Probably in a race with nations who managed to figure out the methods and principles, true. But we will be ahead. And we will stay ahead."

The Emperor of Abyssinia was nodding. "If we survive." Yimer was closing and opening his mouth.

"These methods," the Archbishop said, "are a hundred years ahead of where the world is racing toward. We have them now, because we spend much of our time looking back upon, and respecting, the faded glory still among us. Which is also, in a way, the history of science.

"The only bad news, aside from needing time to pull this together..." The Archibishop of Wollo inhaled. "I am no longer Archbishop."

"...what!?" That was Iyasu. "What?!" That was Habte.

"The Pope in Alexandria has told me it is improper for one of our order to be the head of a government which is hurling itself and its people into continental war. Even if the war is only the smallest in the world right now. He sympathized with the plight of our captive people, but still: a bishop should be a man of peace. And I am not only supporting warriors, which would be somewhat different. I am directly supporting war by governmental fiat.

Iyasu sighed and nodded at that. "I could depose you if that would help." He tried to lighten the tone of the offer to show he meant no grievance.

"If I don't voluntarily quit, no it wouldn't help. But even if I voluntarily quit, I still would want to help with the research disciplinary project. We were going to create the Wollo Monastery Research Hub..."

"We still will," Habte assured them.

"...but much of what we research won't be arts of peace but war," the Minister said.

"Therefore," he continued, in a speech to reporters that afternoon, "in compliance with the options given to me by our Pope, I am resigning as Archbishop, effective immediately. No," he answered a question, "I do not resent his decision. We only disagree over how I can best help Ethiopia, and I accept his right to manage his officers. I am not rebelling, I am resigning. There is a difference. A doctor might resign to fight in war, for example. Unlike such a doctor... I can never go back to being a bishop. I accept this. My country is more important than my personal preferences. Yes, you may call me 'the Minister' instead if you want. Our Protestant friends will think that very funny.

"No, good question, the monks who are volunteering, from all over Ethiopia, to create and staff the Wollo Monastery, are not giving up their monastic vows at all; or else they will not be allowed to join. We will not directly engage in conflict, for example. Mostly in fact, we will be offering management expertise and training, together with medical research if we get an opportunity. We can teach soldiers discipline, and organization and personal courage. How to operate together in a group and alone, and how to support whoever is operating alone. Probably we will cooperate with the Oletta in learning industrial engineering as we go. Perhaps we will learn other things, normally peaceful things which will strengthen our country peacefully -- while we are at war.

"Yes, another good question, thank you sir. Anyone wishing to join, man or woman, will certainly be required to meet our disciplinary standards. Due to the circumstances, unmarried men and women will live apart from one another; married men and women will be provided for. But neither men nor women will be required to take monastic vows, although that option will also be available. Muslims and other non-Christians will be allowed to join us, yes, for the good of Ethiopia and the continent at large, as this is not a religious order nor for religious research and debate.

"Oh, you have remembered well!" He seemed to be regaining some of his cheer again. "Yes, you are right: little villages of this sort were scattered around the world, once, helping preserve and transmit the knowledge of ancients before us down to their descendants, against barbarian war and invasions.

"Up north, in Europe, they were once called abbeys.

"And we will spread them all across the nation, as we live!"

All the Wollo Abbey's research posts and support personnel were filled in hours.

They prepared to build our future. Our ministers prepared us to defend it.

The cavalry still was coming.


[Note: this is where I start lightly haxoring the save-game files to institute a much more systematic and sane "research" protocol in-game. In real-life nations had started doing this already back in the 1800s, and were certainly well-along in doing it now -- as the game tacitly recognizes with various clearly 'national' research centers -- but in-game research proceeds by the nation paying a small amount of money to let totally separate teams work on an assigned project from which they learn nothing and totally forget what they did to get that far, much less cooperate among themselves.  :P Granted, the research engine in the game would have to be somewhat rewritten and heavily re-balanced to keep a more-or-less historical development track. Still, since this is an alt-history where Ethiopia decides not to ostrich in the sand, I guess it's also an alt-history where scientific groups even in a heavily regulated nation assigning and paying for research projects wake up in a brand new world every few months.  ::) ::) ::) I've tried to paper-over this engine problem, and my solution to it, in the plot, while exploiting my solution as a way to bootstrap Ethiopia up, perhaps, into being able to achieve something notable.]
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Okay, in this entry I'm going to step out of character for a while to explain what I'm doing in principle and in practice from here on out in regard to research. Anyone interested in the story can just skip along to the next part (I'll provide a link here for convenience when I post it tomorrow), or click off and wait until tomorrow.

I provide these notes only to show how much I am and am not cheating (to put it bluntly), so readers don't think I'm magically popping techs out of nowhere, or conversely are wondering why research constraints are still causing me problems for A VERY LONG TIME (also leading to story details, btw).

The new research protocols are this.
(1) Whenever a research team completes five projects, I'll bump their basic skill by 1 (which increases their particular research speed). And I'll be fair, teams that start above 1must complete the requisite number of projects. However, I will retroactively assign every pre-researched project (with which the nation started the game) to a researcher's credit, matching components with expertise. For any small country, like Ethiopia, that won't be many, but they still ought to count. Any researchers who show up along the way (and some are possible even for Ethiopia), don't get retroactives, though: they'll have to earn up to their level before they increase in general skill. We'll say this represents them becoming acclimated to Habte's special disciplines and protocols etc. (In effect Habte has pre-invented 21st century research organization methods, just not the tools yet, and of course with a local cultural flavor for the time and place.)

(2) For every researcher (or team) I'll keep track of which components they have worked on during a project (including pre-research projects retroactively attributed to them). When they have five units of experience in any component type (regardless of what the particular component is, some of which are inherently more difficult than others by the way), they will gain a specialization in that component type. All researchers start with a few already, and those count as five units in that type of component. I don't know what the limit is for how many specializations a researcher can have (I do know they can go as high as six at least), and once they reach that limit they cannot have any more specializations in play at any time, but this will allow them to organically grow according to what they're assigned: they may be assigned Projects X and Y due to having component specialty helpful there, but through working on both projects the team picks up five units of experience in another component type, so picks up a new specialty. The game engine then applies this as a speed bonus of some kind (I think maybe 50%?) to finishing any similar kind of component in a project, though not a speed bonus to the project overall (unless all the components fit a team's research specialties of course).

(2.5) Once I've hit the game-engine limit for research specialties on a team, I'll keep adding them on a notesheet (where I'm tracking this data independently), and then activate them and de-activate others where applicable for a project.

(3) For every five more points of experience in a component, beyond initial specialization (which the game applies as a speed bonus), I will go in and manually apply a pre-completion bonus to each component of an assigned project matching that specialization. So after the next five times a team works on some kind of "electronics" component, I'll go in and set all "electronics" components (if any) in their next research projects to 10 percent pre-completed. After the next five units of experience, it's 20 percent, and so on. Different particular research elements within a general type (like different electronic types) tend to be inherently harder or easier to apply to a project, and most or all projects seem to have a double-slow code set up to make the final component finish at a basic half-speed rate modified by other factors afterward), but they shouldn't have to be relearned EVERY SINGLE TIME.

(4) But I still need to have better cross connection between teams. So when a team starts earning specialty pre-completion bonuses, each team with such a bonus can grant half their pre-completion to a team assigned to the project, so long as the other teams aren't working on a project yet themselves! If the assigned team doesn't have that specialty yet at all, then naturally it still labors under the reduced rate of advance, but at least it has a jump thanks to reference from other teams who aren't fully busy and so can lend a hand.

(5) I'll add a limit so that in no case can any component be pre-researched beyond 95 percent, and then the usual rates of advance (pro or con) will apply. After all, even a perfectly understood component still has to be implemented in a new project in different ways than before.

(6) I'll accept that new research slots only open up every 20 ICs, but whenever I reach the built-in game limit, I'm going to hack the save game to give us a new slot with each extra 20 ICs; and I'll keep track so if we lose ICs I'll set the slot to zero until when-if-ever we pick up ICs again.

(7) As noted above, I'll go shopping around in annexed countries (via a save-game search) for potential (not actual) research teams (so that the conquering country doesn't have a research team stolen out of their working stable), particularly looking for those who have some expertise I'm lacking in my own teams right now, and spend some reasonable kind of money to bring them to Ethiopia, figuring they escaped the coming storm and are looking for work, so I'll give them a signing bonus plus moving expenses. By the same token, since they might be expected to have been hired by another country already, I'll only hire ones with skills of 3 or less. So no nicking an expat Einstein, for example. (This, by the way, will also have story ramifications soon.)

(7.5) Relatedly, I'll go back through my saves to see where the annexed nation was as shortly before its fall as possible, and make a list of their techs and blueprints (but not their inventions as I figure those have to be dealt with separately in any case). Any finished tech or blueprint that matches reasonably well with one of the research teams will be imported, unless I've already finished them myself. Blueprints on techs I'm not currently working on will be simply dropped in to be researched by teams under the usual rules (with modifications as above). Blueprints on techs I'm currently working on will require me to do some in-game finagling that I won't go into the details about but which we may say represents in-game the research team taking a few days to look over the blueprints, evaluate and compare where they are in their own research, and then integrate the bps (and the speed bonus henceforth) into their progress. Already researched techs, I've discovered, cannot be simply dropped in, at risk of losing some or all of their bonuses; but I can set them up to be quickly researched by teams while other projects are put on hold to be resumed later. This gets them 'recognized' as properly activated and applied in-game, and can actually take up to half a month in-game time, so it isn't like they just magically pop in: effort has to be spent to get them integrated into the national production system etc.

(8) If a project must be abandoned, I'll check where the percentages of completion are for each of the components, jot those down for archiving in their proper order along with who was working on the project, and only then do the re-assign. When-if-ever I pick up the research again, I'll manually set the completion numbers back where they were, with two restrictions: no fiddling around further with reference pre-research (presumably already factored in, and simply too difficult to track for projects abandoned a while), and only the team who first worked on the project can get the full restart effect. The pre-completion numbers will otherwise each be multiplied by ten percent of the basic skill of the restarting team, so even a skill 9 team will only start at 90% of whatever the previous pre-completion numbers were.

Tracking research hack-bonuses summary: increase skill 1 for every five projects completed; give component bonus for every five components completed; + 10% bonus for every five completed afterward up to 90%; ALL specialty +bonus teams who aren't on assignment can provide half their specialty pre-complete score to EVERY assigned project's relevant component type; in no case can a pre-completion score exceed 95%; take a snapshot for restoring an abandoned project later, but multiply each pre-completion number by 10% of the basic skill of another team if they pick it up instead.

In short, if I survive long enough, Ethiopia/Abyssinia's research is going to exponentially skyrocket; but I still have to work very hard to earn that progressive skyrocketing.

Have I mentioned, by the way, that the save files for this game run just over EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED STANDARD PAGES and just under ONE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY-TWO THOUSAND WORDS? And it grows LARGER (usually, unless nation data is deleted from being annexed) with EVERY SINGLE SAVE?!

Trust me. This is relevant to my achievement just reported. ;)


Right then. Back to Actual Strategic Thingies next time.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Until I can get back to the narrative this afternoon, some Fraternally Anticipated Questions:

Can any of the characters stage a coup?

In-game, that kind of thing is handled by scripted events (which require various pre-conditions to meet), and maybe by decisions -- I'm not sure what happened first which way, but over in China the Republic went back to being Imperial and several of its satellite states stayed loyal while others formed a National Protection League. At least one, maybe both of those events were reported in the gamelog in the form of decisions that a player would have to make, even though the computer was playing China and its various subordinates -- and even though the computer has repeatedly followed the same course while I was reloading, and playing an alternate ovearall strategy, for testing various engine functions -- meaning there's likely a script for the computer to follow every time, making it a de facto 'event' rather than a decision, although a human player would be presented the choice. {inhale!}

Whether there are any provisions for that sort of thing, written into the vanilla DHFull grand campaign for Ethiopia, I don't know.

I do know the game data allows for the appearance of other 'characters' in later years as options for replacing the current ministers; and I know how to activate those in-game once they become available, but that would involve replacing ministers with other ministers; but that isn't quite the same as a coup unless provisions were made in the game's leader list for Ethiopia for a minister to be assigned to more than one position. Habte started out already assigned to just about everything, with definite skills and opinions on his topics, but I don't recall seeing anyone in the game-save code being regarded as an alternate for anyone else at a position with an activation at a later date -- which would reflect the ability to 'manually' set a coup in-game.

But I also know how to tweak the save-game file now to manually effect a coup and put various people in control (with various capabilities) whenever I want. So I do possess the ability to write a coup into the gameplay.

Am I planning on doing so? Not specifically as a goal, but I have intentionally written everyone so that if a coup looks dramatically interesting, or the best way to explain a game quirk, I have the option of taking that route. Anyone so far in the story could stage a coup, in that sense, up to and including the Emperor's wife (waaaay behind the scenes), several of the generals, and the unnamed narrator-aide himself! (And another very significant potential option is on the way in later chapters I've already play-composed but haven't posted yet.) I've even set myself the narrative challenge to look out for a way that Iyasu could stage a coup against himself!! -- not least because, thanks to a quirk in the game engine, this has already happened!!!  :o And I had to write a way around it. More on that for the next question...


Will any of the characters be going out to the action to fight?

I fully intend this to happen, although I don't have specific plans for it yet. The game data itself originally started with several of the characters in a 'general' pool to be assigned to divisions or larger groups, or even already assigned. However, back when I chose the Purge as my first 'decision-event' provided by the game, most or all of those generals were killed off -- including "Iyasu V"! Which I explained in-story as a guy renaming himself in readiness to kill the real Iyasu and take his place, because craziness is interesting.  8)

But the game doesn't connect various 'characters' in different duty sets; so even though, for example, Habte was killed in the purge, he's still Minister Of Dang Near Everything Because He's Some Kind Of Freaking Genius, and also one of the research teams available (although his research skills don't even come close to his capabilities as a minister).

Still, I can restart the Full vanilla campaign, quickly save it on its starting date pre-purge (if I haven't done that already), and then read the file to find their entries and then copy paste them into my current save-game whenever I want. Or I can create a new general in the campaign data and give him relevant skills, although I don't think anyone (except perhaps Taezaz, He-Of-The-Name-I-Cannot-Read-Whose-Hat-Is-Crazy-Awesome) would have particularly great skillsets yet. Fortunately, the game does assign skills to generals as they level up in experience, and those skills are relevant to what they've been doing, so when-if-ever I do start fielding them, even if they don't start off great (and even the best general currently in the field, Nissibu or whatever his name is, started at level zero), the game itself will let them grow and develop organically.

The main reason I haven't done this yet, is because there has been barely any fighting yet, therefore no reason to send a character out to the field to take command (at least as an Imperial representative). I fully expect that to change once the British start hitting me from all sides.

Which is a developing plot point I'll be getting back to in this afternoon's chapter. :)


Incidentally, if there's a way to manually promote generals within the HOI2:DH engine, I haven't discovered and/or-possibly researched it yet. I think I recall that the engine allows the player to do this in HOI3, however. My suspicion at the moment is that DH handles promotions automatically by an internal game-engine mechanic related to developing experience.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Part 18 -- What To Do

The next day, April 11, the ministers, including the man the people were now (in some confusion) calling The Minister, met to discuss what they could do to help our country while our troops were moving into position. Habte arrived first, and after some brief discussion the Emperor agreed that both small corps (with four upgraded militia divisions) should pursue the retreating British infantry, who after all were still too strong for even two divisions of our militia to feasibly fight. We wouldn't get the next port north as quickly, and might have to fight this same division there as well before driving them out, but the important point was to make sure they retreated beyond our chosen new defensive line rather than regrouping to make a successful defensive stand. Habte thought we just might be able to keep our own troops organized long enough to keep the pressure on the British division to the point that they'd instantly break when threatened. Our troops would definitely have to rest, and this presented a problem: the areas they were moving into weren't good places to even try to rest!

Still, on the northern front we didn't have any better choices yet.



By then, Yimer and Mikael had arrived, so once they'd been caught up on the slight but crucial change in plans, the ministers moved along.

"We should have anticipated," said the Emperor, "that Britain must have significant troops to our south in Dar El Salaam," no longer the hills of shalom, of peace, "formerly German territory. Germany is in trouble there, but they have still cut up Britain's territories by a push from Africa's West. At the moment, until they start sending troop ships for us, Britain must fight against Germany here by troops scattered across the east of Africa. Some they are sending here, but at the worst we must have more maneuver room than the Germans do or did in their eastern pocket."

"Our distraction might even help them survive," Yimer pondered, "until the main across the southern continent links up. Maybe I should ask the Germans how thankful they are!" That was worth a tense but cavalier laugh.

"The Germans have France and Belgium here to contend with, too. Possibly Portugal eventually." The Emperor squinted at the map, trying to get an idea of who owned what and where nearby us.



"Those lands to the west," he continued, "have ports where various European powers can send in troops and send out their supplies to help the war efforts northward."






"At the moment, though," he concluded, "I think we only need to worry about the British. Unless the Italians hurry, they'll be bouncing off the coasts they thought they owned!"

"That's a lot of land for the British to be coming from." They stared at me. I shut my mouth.

"Yes, but it isn't any more developed than ours, mostly," the Emperor answered me. "Try not to fear. They can project enormous power as can France, and Germany of course, and even Portugal to some degree. But they aren't here yet. This was not where any of them expected to fight anymore."

"The British Raj worries me more," said Mikael. "They have even more land, and much more importantly people. Even if they only sent militia, even understrength militia, with 1850 weaponry, they could drown us simply by spitting."



"Hm. I'm kind of impressed," the Emperor said. Then: "Soon we'll almost be the size of India!" Even The Minister grinned a lopsided grin at that. "But I understand your concern. However, India has an enemy closer and vastly much larger and far more dangerous than we are -- yet: the Ottoman Empire. Who recently took Kuwait, remember, a British protectorate. The Raj will probably throw its weight in that direction mostly."

"Speaking of Kuwait," our Foreign Minister said, "I have had contacts sending contacts out to see if I can find any unemployed Kuwaiti research teams or scientists who might have escaped the Ottoman onslaught. If so, I'm sure I could find them a home nearby."

"Luxembourgian scientists would be better; I doubt Kuwait was much more advanced than us!" said Mikael. "But yes. Who else has fallen already? Even the ones whom other nations would scorn to hire, might be useful to us."

"I am already working to offer some Serbian and Albanian scientists sanctuary," Yimer said, "although they haven't fallen yet. Even a couple of blueprints might make a world of difference soon."

"While we're on the topic," said minister Habte, "I recommend I finish my original research next. My cards with holes will soon be ready to go. Rebuilding and inventing the research of research, I was able to work out theories of its early operation. All I really need now are the sorting systems and some simple machines. I'm maybe 80% already done. Nothing else could be finished anywhere nearly as quickly, and we could put the benefits to work on every future project onward."

"What are our feasible options otherwise?" the Emperor asked.

"What do we need the most?" Yimer asked. "Weapons to defend ourselves and hold our rescued lands, until we grow stronger."

"What we need is increased production of weapons and everything else," replied Mikael. "Even once the OMA has finished learning basic industrial engineering, the factories still need building. And to build those factories, we'll have to improve our lands -- very substantially. Yet how will we do that? With whatever little industrial capability we possess already which isn't already dedicated to keeping us alive until we get stronger!"

"How long are you saying that that will take?" the Emperor asked.

"YEARS!" Habte and The Minister answered at once. "By which I mean years until we can even start building the factories, sir," continued our head of government.

Iyasu blanched.

"It simply isn't possible, until we build up significant roads, and villages, and power supplies and routes, and... three times more than most of our lands possess," the clergyman spread his hands. Whatever he said, people would always treat him as a bishop in spirit. "Most lands won't be ready to build even one single factory without two years of work. And I mean two years if all we were doing was keeping our people supplied and happy. We just don't have the strength yet to grow stronger faster than that."

"We do have some hope, however," added Habte. Mikael nodded, "Yes, yes, I was getting to that. We can gain some advantages by continuing in construction research -- but that won't be an option until sometime late in the summer, late July, early August. However, we can more quickly proceed by researching production itself. Send my monks to our factories, sir, and they will start polishing up our production discipline and methods. We have the most experience at management in our research groups so far."

"You mean," the Emperor said, "that we can expand our factories that way?"

"To some extent yes, but actually I am talking about making our work, both at our factories and on the road, increasingly more effective. First we would reduce the amount of materials used; then increase the amount of work produced; then keep going for years along that line. This will not only help us reinforce lost material faster, but also help us work on infrastructure faster; and then of course on building our factories faster. Even research in agriculture, sir, would help this along, though not as quickly, mostly by making our heavy field equipment more efficient."

"If you allow me to work on research as soon as possible, sir, such a plan will proceed more quickly," Habte pointed out. "I can be finished sometime in July, maybe June."

"Even so," the Emperor said, "your methods will start bearing fruit a little before then, yes? I thumbed through your plans last night. You don't really need the cards and whatall to get started along that line."

"Um... yes, that's true. And the sooner that we can increase our factory efficiency, the sooner we can produce more factories, and then produce more room to work on more research."

"On that," said Yimer, "I think we should focus first on production and then start working on research once the OMA is done. However, somewhere in there we should try to get our weapons better up to speed. Or better troops. Either Habte or Wollo should occasionally stop for a while and help us directly defend ourselves better. Not that I am the minister of defense, but still..."

"Agreed," the Emperor said. "We'll make that decision when we come to it. Habte, let Mikael and Wollo go first. You can make the final hop you need in August and then we'll see where we are.

"With a miracle, maybe not dead already by then."

Mikael soon reported, to our dismay: the production research itself would take six months to complete.

Who knew what kind of brutal slaughter we would be facing by then?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Well, I know now what kind of brutal slaughter we'll be facing by then!  ;D :o

I'm almost at August now on my game, but I was so busy tonight I forgot to post a new Part (although I'm somewhere in Part 27 by now.) I thought I might take a moment to confirm: there will be many more "fans" by then... ;)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!